Uber, a manager convicted of concealing a cyber attack

Former Security Officer UberAnd the Joe Sullivan, guilty of hiding a Internet attack 2016This resulted in the theft of personal data More than 57 million people between users and employees of the company. the information stolen In Uber, they understood Names, email addresses and phone numbersin addition to the numbers license 600 thousand drivers.

As I mentioned before The New York Times And from Washington Post, a jury in San Francisco District Court indicted Sullivan on two counts. The first to own obstructed justiceafter failing to disclose the violation to the US Consumer Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the second to misdirectionor cover up a crime by the authorities.

The 2016 attack occurred after Github, a site used by computer programmers to share source codes for software they develop, was discovered. Login credentials To store Amazon web services from Uber. When the credentials were restored, the cybercriminals downloaded Uber database backups, then contacted the company and took a ransom $100K in Bitcoin. Then those responsible for the attack were identified and in 2019 they admitted to violating the company’s databases.

Such as The New York TimesAnd the It’s the first time an executive has faced criminal prosecution for a cyber attack Sullivan’s conviction could change the way companies deal with such incidents. US prosecutors also showed how Sullivan shared details of the attack and the ransom payment with the then-CEO of Uber. Travis KalanickAnd with the person responsible for protecting the privacy of the company. While He did not disclose any details to Uber’s legal counselwho would not then have reported the true extent of the incident to the new administrative commissioner, Dara Khosrowshahi.

Directly under the new administration of Khosrowshahi, Uber finally launched Sullivanpublicly admitted the violation, ha Paying $148 million in compensation to the users involved Since the attack, his case with the prosecution was resolved last July, and he has promised full cooperation in Sullivan’s trial. On September 16 Khosrowshahi also Witnessed against him. Also, in 2018, after the attack was revealed, Uber made a deal with the Federal Trade Commission and promised to implement a file 20-Year Privacy Shield Based on “Notify the FTC of any IT incident relating to the personal information of users and employees.”

Based on what was mentioned before BloombergAccording to plaintiffsOlivan refused to report the attack to authorities to protect his reputationwhich was supposed to improve Uber’s safety after it joined the company in 2015. While Sullivan’s lawyers reported The New York Timesthey argued thatMr. Sullivan’s sole objective – in this incident and throughout his illustrious career – has been to ensure the security of people’s personal data on the Internet.”. Now Sullivan is even risking Eight years in prison To obstruct justice, but according to what we read about him Bloomberg The punishment could be much shorter.